Danaher: Players ready to put themselves in a ‘dark place’ for England
Ireland defence coach Declan Danaher says players are ready to put themselves in “a dark place” tomorrow when they come up against world No 1 England in the Women’s Six Nations at Twickenham.
Co-captain Sam Monaghan has been ruled out in one of two changes to the side that started the 36-5 win over Wales. Hannah O’Connor replaces Monaghan in the second-row, with Aoife Dalton getting the nod ahead of Enya Breen in the centre.
England are expected to deliver another dominant display in a campaign where they’ve kept Italy (0-48) and Scotland (0-46) scoreless in away wins. Ireland have failed to register a point against
England in their last three Six Nations encounters.
“We’ll see how long we can stay in the fight and go from there. There’s a lot of dog, a lot of people willing to put themselves into a dark place to help the team,” Danaher said before the squad flew to London yesterday.
“You don’t know what you’re capable of until you take yourself there. You’re going to have to dig pretty deep. And I know the group’s capable of doing that.”
Danaher says Monaghan’s absence from the team is not related to her previous concussion. The Gloucester-Hartpury lock missed the opening game against France last month as she followed return-to-play protocols from a concussion she suffered while playing for her club in January. Monaghan travelled with the squad to London and Danaher expects her to be fit for the final game against Scotland at Ravenhill.
“The concussion obviously took her out of training so it’s not the concussion. It’s probably the lack of training time. You want to be best prepared. The medical team did an unbelievable job getting Sam to the start, to be available.
“She’s taken part in training today. She’s not taken a full part but she’s continuing to recover. And who knows. With a bit longer in between games maybe she would have been available, but I expect her to be in the mix for next week.”
A crowd of more than 45,000 is expected at Twickenham, the biggest most of the Ireland players will have played in front of, yet Danaher doesn’t believe the younger players will be overawed.
“They’re a pretty relaxed group. Of course, they’ll be nervous, nerves are good, nerves mean you care, nerves mean you’re prepared. I think they will be that but I think they’ve got to remember is that they’re not out there on their own, they’re out there with their 15 teammates, they’re out there with their subs.
“I think they should have that confidence. As I said, nerves are good but when you’re young you don’t know any better, do you?”
It will be the first time Eve Higgins (left) has played against England in the Six Nations and she can’t wait: “They have a lot of threats and they’ve probably been the world’s best team, consistently over the last 10 years. It’s hugely exciting, especially to play at Twickenham because a lot of girls in the squad haven’t had that opportunity. ” IRELAND (v England): L Delany; K Corrigan, E Higgins, A Dalton, B Parsons; D O’Brien, A Reilly; L Djougang, N Jones, C Haney; D Wall, H O’Connor; A Wafer, E McMahon (capt), B Hogan. Reps: C Moloney, N O’Dowd, S McGrath, F Tuite, S Ikahihifo, M Scuffil-McCabe, E Breen, M Deely.